Us Still Committed To Adb, But Wants It Leaner

The United States said yesterday it was committed to its leadership role in the Asian Development Bank (ADB), but added that budgetary constraints at many industrialised nations mandated more efficient operations.

We look to the ADB to meet the high standards...with the basic objective of increasing their efficiency and effectiveness in a period of scarce budgetary funds, said Timothy Geithner, US Treasury senior deputy assistant secretary, in a speech to the 56-member ADB.

Geithner was speaking on the second day of the 30th yearly meeting of the bank, which was established to help the poorest nations of Asia.

He said the ADB should direct more of its resources to supporting the private sector of the region by acting as a catalyst in bringing about private capital investment.

 

On Sunday, Japan made similar remarks, saying that donor nations have no choice but to become less generous with aid and the bank must work to harness private cash to channel into the region.

The United States and Japan are the two largest shareholders in the ADB.

Regarding the resources of the bank, Geithner praised the agreement to replenish the banks Asian Development Fund (ADF) earlier this year, but added that a key objective will be to make the fund self-sufficient within half a generation.

The ADF is the banks soft loan window for its neediest members.

He added that the banks ordinary capital resources (OCR)

should also be used with a commitment to achieving a

sustainable level of lending.